Coren Mitchell leaves PokerStars: Glantz, Lavallee, Reilly speak

Last week, Victoria Coren Mitchell shocked many in the poker world when she announced in her most recent blog that she was leaving PokerStars – on the heels of the online poker giant’s announcement that it would be adding casino games – and would no longer be representing the site as a Team Pro. In what was a very well written blog, Coren Mitchell reveals that although she understands PokerStars’ decision to add online gaming to its site, she “cannot professionally and publicly endorse it, even passively by silence with my name still over the shop.”

She added that PokerStars assured her that she would not have to represent the casino arm of the operation but still felt strongly enough to leave the company, ending a seven-year relationship that saw her become the first (and only) poker player to win twice on the European Poker Tour, at EPT London in 2006 and earlier this season at EPT Sanremo.

The poker community, for the most part, has been complimentary, celebrating the fact that Coren Mitchell chose to take a stand for what she believed in so very dearly. Star players such as Mike McDonald, David Williams and Sorel Mizzi took to Twitter to voice their support toward Coren Mitchell and her decision to leave PokerStars.

Many people in the poker world would wait to see what, if anything, PokerStars’ franchise player, Daniel Negreanu, would have to say on the subject. Negreanu decided to write his own blog over the weekend. Kid Poker discusses the very same topics that he assumes Coren Mitchell debated prior to deciding to leave PokerStars. In a very thought provoking blog, Negreanu admits “I would personally feel like a hypocrite if I justified that it’s OK for me to take money from problem gamblers, but it’s not OK for the casino to do the same. if it’s wrong it’s wrong, no matter who profits. As much as we’d like to separate poker from gambling, poker played for money IS gambling.”

Negreanu would also go on to say that he respects and admires Coren’s personal stance on online casino gaming.

PLAYERS SPEAK

We decided to reach out to three other poker players, all three in different spots in their poker careers, to get their thoughts on the matter:

Massachusetts native Tim Reilly is a rising star on the live tournament circuit and a player who’s enjoyed success playing online as well: “My initial response to hearing Vicky had left PokerStars was shocking seeing she is the only 2 time EPT Champion and her value should be higher than ever. However I can totally understand her personal and principle reasons to leave. She signed up to promote poker (a game of skill) not gambling and although synonymously the same to the general public, very different in reality. This was a decision Im sure she put a lot of thought into and decided that it wasn’t something she wanted to be a part of.”

The newlywed would go on to say: “I myself have been back and forth in the past few days whether its a good thing for poker. I read that its going to increase deposits that would obviously be good for winning players if the money was going into poker. My fear is that the money will be going into the websites pocket and not the poker industry. I think our focus needs to be on legitimizing poker as a sport and not a game of chance. By associating with online casino games we may be hurting ourselves. Having said this I still would like to do more research and see if there is any validity to the claims the websites make that it would ad value to our sport.”

Reilly has had a few close calls on the circuit, including a runner-up finish in the High Roller event at EPT Deauville and a World Series of Poker final table. He could be exactly the type of player that online poker rooms and casinos would be looking to sponsor, as online regulations continue to change in the United States; he may be faced with the same situation in the near future.

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2013 EPT London High Roller winner Jason Lavallee is a regular on the European Poker Tour. With over $4.3M in winnings in both live and online poker tournaments, Lavallee is well recognized as one of the top “hybrid” tournament poker professionals in the world. When asked about his initial thoughts when he heard that Coren Mitchell had left PokerStars, Lavallee said: “It was surprising, I knew at some point some Stars pros would take a stance in the media or make comments that might hurt their future sponsorship chances but for someone to come out and flat out resign was unexpected.”

I then asked Lavallee how he would handle the situation should he be offered a sponsorship deal from a site that also hosted casino games: “It’s odd because until a few minutes ago I never thought sponsorship opportunities would present me with any moral dilemmas. Naive maybe on my part but it’s something I’ll have to reflect on!”

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“I think any poker player putting their integrity first and their own financial concerns second is a great thing for all of us.  While I do not personally feel a conflict in representing a poker room as well as a casino, I find it refreshing for her to so public and firm in her convictions. Kudos to Vicky!” – thought established star Matt Glantz when he first heard of the news.

Glantz is in a very similar position that Coren Mitchell found herself in as he is an Ambassador for the Parx Casino outside of Philadelphia:

“I guess my views have always differed from Vicky’s. I have never seen non-poker types of gambling as evil or bad. I would never recommend anyone to take part in any negative expectation gambling but I understand there is a ton of entertainment value involved for most people. This is what continues to make the overall casino business thrive.”

Less than a week after Coren Mitchell’s resignation, there are still plenty of people in poker with various thoughts on the situation. What about you? What would you have done if you were in Coren Mitchell’s shoes? Taking into consideration all of the issues and the impact of making such a decision, especially financially, you may realize that the decision isn’t as easy as you first thought!